5.2 Microsoft Entra Domain Services

It is a directory service, a phone book for a computer network. A directory lists computers and users and resources on a network and their details. It’s necessary for managing and controlling access to resources in a network.

Entra Domain service is a modern managed domain service. No need to worry about the infrastructure, and just deploy. It’s on cloud active directory.

• Managed domain service.
• Scalable and high availability.
• Compatibility with the Windows Server.

Key Features

• Domain join, this allows Windows servers and computers to join a secure domain without the need for traditional domain controller. This makes it easier to manage network’s identity infrastructure.
• Group policy, with group policy you can manage your network users and computers efficiently. We can apply the security settings and configurations across the board.
• LDAP and Kerberos/NTLM Authentication, These are critical for supporting legacy protocols that are necessary for a wide range of applications and services to function securely and reliably. Traditional AD uses LDAP for directory services and Kerberos for authentication.

Entra ID uses modern authentication protocols such as OpenID, OAuth, and SAML and so on.

• Integrated management, can integrate the existing services with Entra ID.

Benefits

• Simplified Administration, less time and resources spent on domain controllers.
• Scalability and Reliability, ensures domain service grows with organization’s growth.
• Security and Compliance, secure management of domain services following the industry compliant standards.

Use Cases

• Active Directory Migration, to migrate from on-premises to Azure Cloud.
• Maintain the group policy without starting over again
• Also supports legacy applications.